CRH Profit Rose; Will Buy Back Up to Around $300 Million of Shares

By Joe Hoppe

CRH said pretax profit rose, reflecting good underlying demand in key end-use markets, positive pricing and contributions from acquisitions, and that it will extend its buyback program.

The Irish building-materials supplier made a pretax profit of $4.01 billion in 2023, up from a restated $3.46 billion a year before, while revenue rose to $34.95 billion, from $32.72 billion.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose 15% to $6.2 billion.

The group declared a full-year dividend of $1.33, up from $1.27 a year earlier, and said it will switch to quarterly dividends, starting with a 35 cent payment in April. It also said it intends to buy back up to around $300 million of shares.

"Overall, we expect a favorable market backdrop and continued positive pricing momentum in 2024 driven by significant infrastructure investment and re-industrialization activity across our key markets in North America and Europe," the company said.

Write to Joe Hoppe at joseph.hoppe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 29, 2024 03:07 ET (08:07 GMT)

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